


Apples and Oranges

by Annetagonist



Series: You and Whose Army? [1]
Category: Primeval
Genre: Gen, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-13
Updated: 2015-12-13
Packaged: 2018-05-06 10:41:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5413742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annetagonist/pseuds/Annetagonist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Becker and Connor meet while still at school</p>
            </blockquote>





	Apples and Oranges

**Author's Note:**

> This was written by the lovely Verity, who can be found on tumblr with the url cobblepotsumbrella, for my birthday. SHe doesn't have an Ao3 account so I'm posting it for her. This will possibly be part of a series, with Verity and I contributing stories, if it's Verity's work, I'll mention in the notes. Note that we are both terrible at actually continuing with our writing.

Apples and Oranges

 

               He hated it here. He hated new schools. He especially hated when the teachers made him stand up in front of everyone and then told them his name. And come to think of it, he hated his name too. Hillary. What kind of name was that for a boy? Didn’t his parents know that everyone would make fun of him for that? He just wanted to be called Becker, or even James for that matter. But not Hillary. Anything but that. But every time, the teacher made him stand up there in front of everyone, and they always said the same thing.

            “This is Hillary Becker. He’s new, show him around if he needs it, okay kids?”

            And they would all sit there and giggle at him because he had a girl’s name.

            It was worse this time, there was a group of older boys who took his lunch and then pushed him down at recess. He’d just wanted to swing for awhile, feel the air on his face and feel like he was flying. But he’d ended up sitting in the shade of the school building, sniffling and dabbing blood off his split lip with his jacket sleeve. And he was hungry too, his stomach growling as he rested his head on his knees. He heard footsteps walking up to him, and he was expecting to look up and be hit again, but he looked up through his tears and saw a small hand holding out an apple.

            He looked up to see the boy connected to the hand. He was small. Probably a few years younger than him, but the most notable thing about him was his black eye. The curve up to his nose was a dark purple with a little yellow around the edge of the bruise. He looked down at him and shook the apple a bit, then gave him a blinding smile. His two top front teeth where quite a bit bigger than the rest of them. Becker just looked up at him.

            “Take it. It’s not gonna bite ya.” The boy said as he shook the apple again. Becker reached out and took it.

            “Thanks.” He muttered, biting into it gratefully. The other boy sat down next to him and folded his legs across each other.

            “I’m Connor. What’s yer name?” he held his small hand out to Becker and Becker just looked at it until he pulled it back awkwardly and dropped it into his lap. He sat there looking out at the playground, not looking at Becker.

            “It’s…” he stopped, he didn’t know what he should say. Connor’s head had snapped in his direction and his face had lit up when Becker had started speaking. He figured he should just tell the truth, and then tell him what he’d like to be called.

            “It’s Hillary, but I like being called Becker better. So don’t call me Hillary.” He said forcefully. Connor was just nodding next to him.

            “That’s a bit of an odd name for a boy innit? Hillary. I think I’d like Becker better if I was you too. Good call on that one mate.” He said all of this really quickly, and in a tone that made it sound like he was thinking out loud more than anything else.

            “That’s why they were laughing at you then? Cuz you’ve got a girl’s name?” Connor asked, looking at him with big eyes. He seemed curious and not mean spirited so Becker just nodded at him. Connor nodded back and then pulled his knees up and rested is chin on them and looked back out to the playground.

            “What happened to your eye?” Becker asked, picking at the grass next to him, pushing his finger into the dirt as far as he could, not looking at Connor.

            “Huh? Oh. I ran into someone in the hallway, wasn’t looking where I was going and they got mad and hit me.” He ran his finger over the bruise and then gave Becker a small smile.

            “Sorry.” He didn’t know what else to say. Connor lifted and then dropped his shoulder.

            “It’s alright, m’ used to it I guess.” He sounded a little sad but Becker didn’t know what else to say so he just sat there. Looking out at the play ground and finishing the apple Connor had given him. They heard the teacher blow the whistle and they both got up and headed to where everyone was lining up. Connor turned around to look at him for a moment.

            “How’d you feel ‘bout oranges?” he asked, sounding very serious. Becker thought for a second and kicked at the ground.

            “They’re alright.” Connor nodded, still looking serious and then ran off to join the line his class had made. He turned around again a few steps later.

“See ya tomorrow Becker!” he called and gave him a wave. Becker watched him flail and nearly fall twice before he headed to join his own class. Thinking that the boy was odd, but nice, and most importantly, he’d called him Becker. And he hadn’t laughed at his name. So that was something.

~*~*~

            They took his lunch again the next day. And they pushed him off the actual swing. He’d had it, and he’d been getting pretty high, and then those boys had come back and grabbed the swing. He’d fallen off and scrapped his knee, he almost fought back but decided that leaving would be better. He was sitting in the shade again when and orange was lowered in front of his face from behind. He looked up to see Connor, grinning hugely at him, his teeth making him look a bit like rabbit. Becker took the orange and Connor patted the top of his head before sitting down next to him again and pulling another orange out of his jacket pocket.

            “This is why you asked if I like oranges.” Becker said, picking at the peel and pulling it back. Connor was doing the same to his and nodding his head. He peeled his orange apart and shoved a piece in his mouth.

            “My mawhm gesth thewm at thith sthore with lorts of yummy sthuff.” The boy mumbled through his mouthful. Becker stared at him like he was looking at something he’d never seen before. Connor stopped chewing mid mouthful and looked back at him.

            “Wha?” he asked. Becker just stared at him.

            “Yeah. That’s exactly what I was gonna say to you. What?” he asked, still staring. Connor stared right back at him for a moment and then broke into a fit of giggles. He covered his mouth with both hands to stop his food from flying out and Becker felt himself laughing along with him. Both of them red in the face a few moments later. Connor had finished his mouthful and was clutching at his stomach and rolling on his side, no sound coming out as he laughed.

            They both calmed down a few moments later. Connor taking another bite and chewing slowly before looking at Becker.

            “I said, my mom gets then at this store with lots of really yummy stuff. They have all sorts of yummy stuff there. But I like the oranges best I think.” He nodded, seeming very serious again. Becker figured he was probably always this serious about food. And that seemed reasonable. Food was important. Especially the yummy kinds.

            They sat in silence for the rest of recess, eating their oranges and watching the kids on the playground running around. Becker looked over to see Connor licking his fingers clean and smiled.

            “Do you like swinging?” Becker asked. Connor stopped mid lick, his tongue resting on his middle finger, his eyes going wide. He dropped his hand into his lap.

            “Um… yes. Who doesn’t? But I never get to. Haven’t for ages. They pushed me off real hard last time I tried. I didn’t try again after that.” She shrugged it off like it was nothing. It made Becker mad. He didn’t mind them messing with him so much, he was new, that’s what they always did to new kids. But Connor had always gone here, as far as he knew, and he was nice. They should be nice to him. But they weren’t. And that was not okay.

            The whistle blew and they headed for their lines. Connor waving at him again before running off. He did trip this time, but got up quickly and ran to his line. Becker chuckled to himself and went to the back of his own line, dead set on getting him and Connor on the swings someday. Maybe tomorrow even.

~*~*~

            He’d waited for Connor at the door, pulling him out of the group of kids by his jacket sleeve and heading to the swing quickly. Connor trailing behind him slowly. Becker huffed and grabbed his hand to pull him along faster.

            “Come on. We have to go faster if we wanna get the swings Connor.” He could feel the other boy purposefully dragging his feet.

            “I don’t think this is a good idea Beck.” He mumbled, chewing on the end of his jacket sleeve. Becker just kept pulling him along and then grabbed the two swings on the end. Placing Connor in front of one and then hopping on one himself. Connor slowly sat down in his own swing.

            They got a few kicks in before Becker’s back ran into something solid. Connor made a small noise next to him as he stepped off his swing and said sorry. He tried to walk away but one of the boys grabbed his arm. Becker stepped off his swing quickly, coming face to face with the leader of this little gang.

            “We’ve been through this _Hillary_. You don’t use the swings til we say you do. And we haven’t said you can mate, so piss off.” He pushed at Becker’s shoulders and he started to walk away, Connor tried to follow but was held back. Becker stopped and looked back.

            “And haven’t we told you before as well Temple?” he shook him a little and he stared at the ground and nodded.

            “Yeah, I thought we had.” The boy nodded and then shoved Connor roughly to the ground. His face smacking into the mulch, he coughed and spit dirt out of his mouth. He looked up and Becker saw that this nose was bleeding. He growled and jumped on the boy that had pushed Connor.

“Don’t touch him!” he yelled, his hands balled into fists. He kept swinging until he was pulled off the other boy by a teacher. He and Connor were both taken inside and into the principal’s office. Apparently Connor had jumped on one of the other boys when they had tried to pull Becker off. He hadn’t even felt that.

They sat next to each other in the waiting room. Connor’s nose still dripping blood a bit, Becker’s lip was split and bleeding. Becker kicked at the tile floor beneath their feet and watched Connor’s legs swing next to him, his feet not reaching the ground. Connor kicked at Becker’s leg to get his attention. He looked up at the boy.

“So. We’re gonna try again tomorrow yeah?” he asked with a dirt smeared grin. Becker looked at him, his eyes big and shining, his nose dripping blood, his rabbit teeth stained with dirt and blood.

“Definitely.” Becker nodded. Looking incredible serious. They both burst out laughing as the principal walked in.

 

~ The End ~

…

~ For Now ~


End file.
